Cellular-Capable iPad Pre-Orders En Route to U.S. Customers with Friday, November 16 Delivery

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In line with reports from last week, Apple has begun shipping pre-orders of cellular-capable fourth-generation iPad models to U.S. customers. MacRumors has received word from over half a dozen readers indicating that their orders are now en route via FedEx with delivery scheduled for this Friday, November 16.

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We had previously reported that some customers who were initially seeing delivery estimates of next week were receiving free upgrades to November 16 delivery upon request, and it now appears that most early pre-order customers will be seeing delivery this Friday even without special requests.

We had also received a report indicating that AT&T would begin selling the cellular-capable models of the iPad mini and fourth-generation iPad on November 16, with the carrier offering a $100 discount to those signing for a two-year data contract for the device. All iPad models including the iPad mini are eligible for the promotion.

We've yet to see word of any cellular-capable iPad mini pre-orders heading out for shipment, so it remains to be seen whether they too will make the same delivery window of this Friday.

macrumors regular

If you're gonna own an LET table, you probably own a LET phone. And with that, you can just use your phone as a hotspot to connect your tablet to (WiFi). It works just flawlessly with Verizon. At the cost of carrying your phone with your tablet. Which is irrelevant really because you always have your phone with you, and more importantly, you save $130!

macrumors 68000

If you're gonna own an LET table, you probably own a LET phone. And with that, you can just use your phone as a hotspot to connect your tablet to (WiFi). It works just flawlessly with Verizon. At the cost of carrying your phone with your tablet. Which is irrelevant really because you always have your phone with you, and more importantly, you save $130 over the LET-enabled tablets.

macrumors 6502a

If you're gonna own an LET table, you probably own a LET phone. And with that, you can just use your phone as a hotspot to connect your tablet to (WiFi). It works just flawlessly with Verizon. At the cost of carrying your phone with your tablet. Which is irrelevant really because you always have your phone with you, and more importantly, you save $130 over the LET-enabled tablets.

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Unless you don't have an LTE phone, or need one, and your tablet is being used as a work tool and needs an always on connection instead of tether that sucks your phones battery life. Or a hundred other reasons why you'd want data connectivity on your tablet without the need for a secondary device That's why they make these things, otherwise they'd all be WiFi only

Anyone in the UK had a change in status. Mine is still showing: Processing Items Dispatched: Late November. Ordered on the 1st of November

macrumors 65816

If you're gonna own an LET table, you probably own a LET phone. And with that, you can just use your phone as a hotspot to connect your tablet to (WiFi). It works just flawlessly with Verizon. At the cost of carrying your phone with your tablet. Which is irrelevant really because you always have your phone with you, and more importantly, you save $130!

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Couple issues I have with this.

The WiFi hotspot on my iPhone stops broadcasting after a few minutes unless I leave it on the hotspot options screen and don't put it to sleep. Then if my iPad goes to sleep, the connection is lost and I have to unlock my iPhone, go back to the hotspot screen to get it to broadcast again, and then reconnect my iPad. Not a big deal until you do it a few hundred times with a password more than 4 numeric digits on the damn phone.

Also, WiFi+Cellular use on the iPhone drains the battery very quickly. If I am traveling, I might not be able to charge it for 12-24 hours. This means I'm screwed after about 3 hours of usage. If my iPad has its own cellular modem, I get about 9-10 hours instead of 3 plus my phone isn't dead.

Now, not everyone will have the same issues and need a cellular capable device to get by. That is why they made two models... one for people who don't need LTE and one for people who do. Choose which works for you and enjoy.

macrumors member

If you're gonna own an LET table, you probably own a LET phone. And with that, you can just use your phone as a hotspot to connect your tablet to (WiFi). It works just flawlessly with Verizon.

"At the cost of carrying your phone with your tablet. Which is irrelevant really because you always have your phone with you, and more importantly, you save $130 over the LET-enabled tablets.

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Yeah but have you ever tried to do this? We as consumers are constantly buying things to make our lives easier. I use to work in wireless retail, and i would tell customers to save the $130 and just enable hotspot like you suggested.

That was before with 3G. If you are luckly to have good LTE coverage in your city, like i do in Sugarland, tx. My speedtests are regularly 20mb+ or higher with ATT LTE. Acutally the fastest i have hit is 55mb, near my wifes school and at my church near Reliant Staduim where the 8-1 Texans play!
So far from my personal tests, ATT doesn't cap maximum d/l speeds. So if you close enough to a tower, you can easily hit 50mb. My friend has verizon LTE ipad, and never gets anywhere near my speeds. He also has a i5 through Sprint, and barely hits 15mb+ on a good day!

Once enabled LTE on my ipad, instead of using my verizon hotspot. I saw why it was better! It is just more convenient. If apple made a quick widget to turn on/off the hotspot, then my answer would be different.

My ipad with the mobile share plan on ATT only costs me $13.50 a month. Before I was paying $50 a month. I really like the new mobile share plans.

macrumors 6502

The WiFi hotspot on my iPhone stops broadcasting after a few minutes unless I leave it on the hotspot options screen and don't put it to sleep. Then if my iPad goes to sleep, the connection is lost and I have to unlock my iPhone, go back to the hotspot screen to get it to broadcast again, and then reconnect my iPad. Not a big deal until you do it a few hundred times with a password more than 4 numeric digits on the damn phone.

Also, WiFi+Cellular use on the iPhone drains the battery very quickly. If I am traveling, I might not be able to charge it for 12-24 hours. This means I'm screwed after about 3 hours of usage. If my iPad has its own cellular modem, I get about 9-10 hours instead of 3 plus my phone isn't dead.

Now, not everyone will have the same issues and need a cellular capable device to get by. That is why they made two models... one for people who don't need LTE and one for people who do. Choose which works for you and enjoy.

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Just a word on the connectivity. If you are carrying an iPhone, choose the Bluetooth option instead of wifi on personal hotspot. It wakes your phone from sleep if you have not used your connection in a while. It has a much better reconnection than wifi and mine stays steadily connected even an hour or two apart from using it.

macrumors regular

macrumors 65816

Just a word on the connectivity. If you are carrying an iPhone, choose the Bluetooth option instead of wifi on personal hotspot. It wakes your phone from sleep if you have not used your connection in a while. It has a much better reconnection than wifi and mine stays steadily connected even an hour or two apart from using it.

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Are there speed limitations if using Bluetooth? I always thought there was a huge limit on speed with it.

macrumors regular

macrumors newbie

I called Apple and complained last week because I'll be headed out of town this Saturday, and wanted to see if they could get me my iPad Mini (Verizon, 4G LTE) by this Friday (the 16th). The guy was really nice, but he said there was no way to get it bumped up to then. He upgraded me to next-day shipping, but it only moved me from Wed the 21st to Tues the 20th. :/

I'll be pissed if the Mini w/ 4G is available in stores this Friday but I don't get mine.

macrumors newbie

Just thought I would weigh in...
I ordered a 64gb Verizon iPad on October 26th and live in Vermont and I got a text from Apple saying delivery on the 16th but when I went to track it with FedEx I got a date of the 19th. Either way, it was supposed to be the 23rd originally so I am pretty stoked!

macrumors 68040

If you're gonna own an LET table, you probably own a LET phone. And with that, you can just use your phone as a hotspot to connect your tablet to (WiFi). It works just flawlessly with Verizon. At the cost of carrying your phone with your tablet. Which is irrelevant really because you always have your phone with you, and more importantly, you save $130!

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The typical, "because I personally don't use a device in this manner that must mean its stupid for *anyone* to use a device in that manner" post. You need to look beyond your one usage patterns and needs. It's very clear that there is a market for cellular models and there are many good reasons articulated in this thread as to why.

Mine is that I don't need cellular data on my iPad every month and so I like to get it when I travel. However, I don't want to give up the unlimited data on my iPhone just so that I can get a more expensive tethering/shared data plan--and I don't want to jailbreak my phone either. I don't even have LTE on my iPhone yet, its still on the pokey 3G anyway.

macrumors 6502a

I preordered my white, 64gig, cellular iPad mini first thing on Oct 26th thru Apples online store, and Its still "processing" with a delivery date of November 21st. A day before me birthday. Heh heh heh.

I did call Apple to try and expedite it, but no dice. However, they did offer me a FREE smart cover. ;-)

The smart cover shipped and will arrive on the 15th supposedly.

Hope the mini arrives before the 21st too! That would be awesome.

But if you ordered the cellular mini, I would at least call Apple and try. Even if they can't, you might get a free smart cover too. Good luck!

If you're gonna own an LET table, you probably own a LET phone. And with that, you can just use your phone as a hotspot to connect your tablet to (WiFi). It works just flawlessly with Verizon. At the cost of carrying your phone with your tablet. Which is irrelevant really because you always have your phone with you, and more importantly, you save $130!

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For YOU maybe. For me, paying some greedy telecom company $130 or more a month for data, voice & text on an iPhone is stupid.

I have the original iPad with unlimited data plan that I will transfer to my LTE iPad mini when it arrives. For $29 a month, I can use my iPad mini to make free calls and texts using VoIP apps. I get a free phone number and voicemail with google voice. And the iPad mini fits in me pocket. Now THAT is smart!

macrumors regular

Are there speed limitations if using Bluetooth? I always thought there was a huge limit on speed with it.

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There is a significant impact. You are pretty much operating at the medium end of 3g speeds on the device that's connected via bluetooth.

Additionally bluetooth limits your connection to one device at a time compared to Wi-fi allowing multiple devices.

That being said, he has a good point about it keeping an always alive connection so for low bandwidth usages like email it's a good option.

It's so typical of many of the posters here to call something stupid just because it's not something they would do/use, like the guy who called LTE in tablets stupid. At this point, I will buy an LTE enabled mobile device over Wifi only, every time, but that's just me

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